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Craig McInnes: First 90 days for new Liberal government includes return of legislature

Platform is thin on specific measures, but Clark has promised to be swift implementing new measures

Liberal Leader Christy Clark’s platform may be a bit thin on specific measures, but she told the Sun editorial board she won’t be wasting any time serving up some new policies.

Photograph by: DARRYL DYCK
, THE CANADIAN PRESS

It would be tough to match the drama that Gordon Campbell brought to the first 90 days of his first and last terms as premier.

Premier Christy Clark was part of that first term and part of the 90 days of action that followed Campbell’s romp in 2001. Campbell campaigned on a 90-day legislative agenda, starting with shutting down photo radar and enacting a big personal income tax cut and once elected he followed it almost to the letter.

Clark wasn’t part of his last campaign, during which the HST was not mentioned. Within three months of the election, voters found out Campbell intended to bring in the unpopular tax. That decision infuriated many British Columbians, led to a historic referendum in which it was overturned, it opened the door for Clark to come back into politics and set the stage for the dramatic comeback that she appears to have achieved.

Compared with Campbell’s detailed agenda for change that he rode into office, Clark’s platform is thin on specific measures. Much of what she promised is already government policy.

But Clark told The Vancouver Sun editorial board last week that she won’t be wasting any time putting into place the new measures she has promised.

She says she will bring back the legislature shortly after her new cabinet is sworn in.

“We’ll come back before the summer.”

The legislative agenda will include passing the balanced budget introduced in February. Whether that budget is reintroduced exactly as it was remains to be seen. After the 1996 election, then premier Glen Clark told reporters he might need some “wriggle room” in the budget that he had introduced on the eve of the vote. And Campbell was forced to announce that the projected deficit had ballooned significantly between when he introduced his pre-election budget in 2009 and when it was finally passed.

Clark also promised to pass a more stringent balanced budget law, with larger penalties for government ministers if targets are missed. She is also promising to enact the promised freeze on carbon taxes and personal income taxes, presumably along with the budget.

Her 90-day agenda includes pushing ahead negotiations with companies planning LNG export facilities in B.C. to bring closer the day when benefits start to flow. Clark’s long-term promise of a prosperity fund that will wipe away all of the province’s debts depends on that dream becoming reality.

She is also promising to quickly shore up the natural resources ministry to ensure that forestry and mining initiatives aren’t held up by bureaucratic backlogs.

Clark is taking a risk by bringing back the legislature so soon after the election. Unlike the experience she remembers in the summer session in Campbell’s first term, she will be facing a large opposition. She has a lot of talent and experience from which to draw, but even the veterans will be in new portfolios and the rookies will be still finding their way to the washroom.

For the first time this year, the Clerk of the Legislature is posting a version of the Member’s Handbook online as part of a transparency initiative. The new website — http://members.leg.bc.ca — was to have been operational today. It gives a glimpse into the world new MLAs are going to have to quickly acclimatize themselves to over the next few weeks, with everything from the details about their salaries — currently a base of $101,859.00 — to rules about office rentals and expense accounts.

As a returning premier, Clark will be able to hit the ground running. There is still a lot to be done. The first order of business is to sit down with her closest advisers and decide not only which MLAs will be in cabinet, but how many ministries there will be. Deputy ministers have to be appointed and scores of political staff hired, from communications specialists to constituency assistants.

While the planning can go ahead, nothing can be finalized until the return of the writ on June 5.

Clark also promises a core review of the government, an echo of the exercise Campbell went through after taking office in 2001. That led to a major reduction in the core government. This time cuts will likely be much harder to find.

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